What does 15 ft-lbs of recoil mean anyway? And if the recoil doubles to 30 ft-lbs does that mean it hits me twice as hard or it hurts twice as bad?

mburu

Mburu,

Again another great question. Recoil is a funny thing to try and cuantify or scale. I would say the effect of recoil is more exponential in it's effect on a shooter than linear. If you shoot a rifle and then shoot another rifle that has twice the recoil, it would feel like it kicked four times as hard. lol! I know that sounds CRAZY but let me explain some more.

First of all think of a 12 year old boy or girl firing a 243 from the standing position. This rifle should deliver roughly 7 or 8 ft-lbs of recoil. Then have them shoot a 270 Winchester. This will be double the recoil at about 14 ft-lbs. IF the child is somewhat accustomed to shooting guns that make a big noises, they will probably handle the 270 without a huge problem. Now have them shoot a 300 win mag and a 200 grain bullet or a 450 Marlin. These two will produce roughly 28 ft-lbs of recoil. You will most likely see a very dramatic difference. The effect on the shooter from that jump in recoil is much bigger than the previous one.

You can do the same excersize yourself, but make sure that you shoot at least one if not two higherlevels of recoil. So for example after the 300 win mag and the 200 grain bullet, shoot a 458 Win Mag at 56 ft-lbs of recoil then a 500 Nitro in an 8lb platform at only 98 ft-lbs, or a 500 Jefferies in an 11lb platform. lol!

This is why I say recoil is more of an exponential effect on the shooter rather than linear. It is kind of like saying well once something is broken, If I hit it twice as hard will it be twice as broken? Broke is Broke, just like to much recoil is to much. I hope that helped.